Colleges

UNISON represents nearly 30,000 members working in further education and sixth form colleges across the UK.

We’re the support staff specialists, with the largest number of support staff members of any union, and we understand the issues you face both in and out of the classroom.

UNISON has a seat at the table to negotiate on your pay and conditions, and because we only represent support staff, we’re completely focused on securing what’s important to you.

We don’t just represent you and campaign on the big issues you’d expect like pay, college funding and temporary contracts. UNISON is here to improve your working life day to day by securing agreements on workload, sickness absence and much more.

We represent college staff working in a huge variety of roles:

• training and assessment (including demonstrators, assessors, verifiers)
• advisors (including careers advisors, employment liaison, student counsellors)
• technical
• library services
• facilities (cleaners, estates managers)
• professional, administration and business support (including staffing/HR, marketing, communications, receptionists)
• specialist learning support (including curriculum support and special needs and disabilities support)
• catering (including chefs, cooks and canteen staff)
• IT, data (including IT support)
• finance and procurement (including payroll, tendering)

Check out the sections below to find out how UNISON works for college staff in all these roles – fighting for better pay, tackling excessive workloads, demanding job security, lobbying for improved college funding and supporting you in dealing with students.

If you’re in Scotland, check out the dedicated pages for further education staff.

UNISON Scotland in colleges